How hard is the water in Allamakee County, IA?
19 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Allamakee County, IA is 325 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 19 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 29 samples at 9 sites between 1990 and 2017, drawn from groundwater wells, which is what most taps and private wells in the county draw on.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 18.6 and 19.5 gpg. The whole middle of that range gives the same answer, so a test of your own tap is unlikely to change it. Confidence in the county figure: medium (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 19 gpg a softener pays its way here. Before you buy, check the quoted unit's grain capacity against the sizing table below, and ask whether it regenerates on demand, which uses less salt than a timer. Call your utility for its own report if you are on city water.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
From 9.3 to 23.0 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Allamakee County was 160 mg/L and the hardest 393 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 19.5 gpg and the bottom quarter below 18.6 gpg.
Wells 19 gpg, rivers and lakes 19.1 gpg
29 groundwater samples from 9 wells put the median at 325 mg/L. 25 surface samples from 6 sites put it at 326.3 mg/L. In Allamakee County the rivers and lakes come out 0.1 gpg harder. Here the surface water reads harder than the wells, which often points to streams fed by limestone springs or irrigation return flow. The two sources are close, so the county figure should hold whichever one your tap is on.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 415 lb of salt a year (11 bags of 40 lb, about $75), and roughly 2,346 gallons of regeneration water. Installed, most units run $1,000 to $4,500; spread over 15 years with salt, that is about $175 a year.
Sizing at 19 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,140 | 24,000 | 139 lb |
| 2 | 2,280 | 24,000 | 277 lb |
| 4 | 4,560 | 32,000 | 555 lb |
| 6 | 6,840 | 48,000 | 832 lb |
Allamakee County against the rest of Iowa
Among the 93 Iowa counties with data, Allamakee County is number 55 of 93 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 81% of counties.
Softest in Iowa: Taylor County at 8.2 gpg. Hardest: Pocahontas County at 45.3 gpg. Closest to Allamakee County: Keokuk County (19), Franklin County (19), Dubuque County (18.7).